Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1901 — FACTS AND OPINIONS [ARTICLE]

FACTS AND OPINIONS

Matrimony and Ttrairu, It would seem, according to the opinions of Some educators, that there ought to be written over the gates of matrimony, or at least over the “ladies’ entrance” to that happy state, the words: “Abandon brains all ye who enter here!” for matrimony and brains are incompatible. This subject is a rather bare bone of contention, and It is one that does not admit of broad generalization. There are many women who seem to have reconciled husbands and higher education; there are others who with that needed qualification for matrimonial happiness, a lack of brains, are still unable to make a success of that stake; and there are women who -are successful in life without either the husbands or the education. A sociologist of some repute, Lester F. Ward, says that one who knows anything of the laws of biology must Insist upon the equal development of both sexes. “Any theory of development,” he says, “that recognizes the fact of the transmission of acquired qualities must expect that where only one parent has acquired such qualities the offspring will only inherit one-half of them. If the full value of the energy expended in conferring useful qualities is to be realized in the offspring, they must be conferred equally upon both paredts.” Mr. Ward further says that, while the female mind differs from the male in many important and fortunate respects, intellect is one and the same everywhere, and that the proper nourishment of intellect is truth. It seems rather late in the day for those who claim to be educators to advance the theory that only by starving the mind is woman fit for the high state of matrimony.